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Secret Garden Dress Turned Top

The Secret Garden Dress is pattern collaboration between E+M Patterns and Sprouting Jube Jube and the result is just lovely.  When I first saw it out in blogland I fell in love with the gorgeous back.  The bow detail is so lovely, but the v-shape above it makes it all come together so perfectly.

Today is my stop on the pattern tour and I’d love to show you what I did with the pattern.  Since we have a couple of months before the holidays begin I didn’t want to make a holiday dress.  Bean may have another growth spurt between now and then so I’ll probably wait until closer to December before sewing a nice Christmas dress.

So I decided to crop the skirt and flounce and make it a top instead.  It’s still so lovely with the bow detail in back, but it’s a little less dressy so we can get lots of layering wear out of it this autumn.

The pattern itself is a bit more involved than a beginner level, but not by much.  If you go slowly and follow the instructions you should have a lovely dress with perfect details in no time.  The sizing runs from 2 to 10 so think of all the summer parties, holidays, and just everyday wear you will get out of it.  The twirl factor is high so any girl would be happy to wear it and spin.

If you buy the Secret Garden Dress during the tour you can use the coupon code SGTOUR25 to get 25% off the pattern.  You can also enter the great Rafflecopter giveaway below for a chance to win some great prizes from the sponsors.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To turn the dress into a top I simply cropped most of the skirt pattern piece while maintaining the original curve of the hemline.  Then I cropped the flounce to be 1″ shorter than the skirt where they meet at the side seam (so they will meet properly later on in the pattern) and tapered it down toward the center back so there would still be lots of flouncy bow back there.

I wanted to incorporate reuse into this top since this is the Hand Me Down challenge week for Project Run & Play, so I grabbed these two old dresses that were in my reuse pile and chopped them down to make this fun look.  The underskirt of the top is the green knit and the bodice, linings, and flounce are the main and lining fabrics from the blue-green dress.

This top would be super cute over a pair of jeans, but of course to make the look even more casual, I wanted Bean to be able to wear a pair of cropped leggings.  If you follow along on Instagram, then you saw the stained old wool sweater that I used to cut out the leggings.  The pattern is the free Leggin’s pattern by Love Notions that you can get here on Craftsy (*affiliate link).  They pattern includes size 2T to 14 years and they’re basically the only leggings pattern you’ll need.  I just cropped a bunch off the length off of the 3T and they were so comfy that Bean didn’t want to take them off.

September 22
Sofilantjes – From a Box – Golden Rippy
September 23
Friends Stitched Together – Project Destash– Simple and Trendy
September 24
Call Ajaire – Crooked Whimsy – Giggles & Beans – Sews ‘n Bows
September 25
The Adventures of Captain X and the Gingerbear Princess – Once Upon a Sewing Machine  
Thread Riding Hood
September 26
Pienkel – Made by Sara – Rebel & Malice – Shaffer Sisters
September 27
Sewing Sober – Lulu & Celeste – Climbing the Willow

Be sure to follow the rest of the Secret Garden Tour.  There have already been some dresses that have blown me away.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Donna Wucherer

    September 24, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    Love this as a top! Great refashion all the way around. That blue is a great color on Bean!

    Reply
  2. Michelle Bryer

    September 24, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    What a cute little top! She probably feels like a princess even thought it is still just a shirt πŸ™‚

    Reply
  3. piroska

    September 24, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    The top is absolutely gorgeous! I love the choice of fabrics, too.

    Reply
  4. Ajaire

    September 24, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Michelle, this is the first time she's really been into the twirling thing so I definitely think that even though it's a top she feels princessy πŸ™‚

    Reply
  5. Ajaire

    September 24, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Thanks Donna! We love her in blue too πŸ™‚

    Reply
  6. Ajaire

    September 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm

    Thank you piroska! I always loved the colors in both of the dresses, but neither ever fit the way I'd have liked πŸ™‚

    Reply
  7. Dollofmalice

    September 24, 2014 at 7:51 pm

    This is beautiful and so roomy, just how I like my wallets and purses.

    Reply
  8. Annie Bu

    September 24, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    Oh ,I love the top idea!! This is so pretty!!

    Reply
  9. Dollofmalice

    September 25, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    Amazing job!!! I love it as a top!

    Reply
  10. Janelle MacKay

    September 26, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    Thank you for the great review! I am so happy you chose this pattern, and it did turn out gorgeous! I think this bag is fun to make and in the end, it looks great! janelle

    Reply
  11. Ajaire

    September 28, 2014 at 10:54 am

    It's a great design! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  12. Ajaire

    September 28, 2014 at 10:55 am

    Thank YOU Janelle for such a great pattern. I was so happy the hardware made it to me in time too! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  13. Ajaire

    September 28, 2014 at 10:56 am

    Thanks Annie! I always loved the colors of that dress, but the fit was awful. It's fun to breathe new life into it πŸ™‚

    Reply
  14. Ajaire

    September 28, 2014 at 10:56 am

    Thank you! I adore it as a top too πŸ™‚

    Reply
  15. Teri Olson

    September 29, 2014 at 2:16 am

    This top is so cute! I love that you kept the long flounce with the shorter top!

    Reply
  16. Amy

    September 29, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    So pretty Ajaire! What a clever idea to make it a top! Love the colors together πŸ™‚

    Reply
  17. Maegen Karen Foster

    October 2, 2014 at 3:48 am

    I really love this! I'm not usually a fan of hi-lo tops, but this is just fabulous. Your talent for altering patterns is magical. πŸ™‚ – Maegen

    Reply

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I've always loved making. At an early age I started cross stitching and sewing and I taught myself to knit and crochet during college. When our seven year old daughter Bean was born I was filled with all sorts of inspiration, so now I find ways to manage my crafty time and treasure those moments. Though sewing is what I'm most passionate about these days, there's something about the portability of yarn crafts and embroidery that keeps drawing me back in.

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